NEWS & VIEWS
Scratch that pillar of our company: How advertisers create challenges for us folks in marketing
Inflation is in the news. Many people are combing through their budgets to find unnecessary expenses to shave, and the market as well as companies seem to be trying to adjust to that behavior. The difference in the reactions is intriguing. Recently, Netflix announced a $6.99 a month ad-supported subscription tier. This is a big moment for the company, as they’ve always heralded themselves as the anti-ad streaming platform. It takes courage to backtracked–but if the goal is to adjust to new realities (and prevent laying off a chunk of your workforce), the move seems gutsy. Twitter couldn’t be further…
Birdy or Bogey? Launching a Golf League in an era of digital activism.
Every day, companies struggle with “reputation management.” Oftentimes, it’s something easy to grasp—a restaurant struggles with take-out order delays and gets roasted on Yelp, or an ecommerce retailer battles poor execution on returns. But what happens when a “product” (in this case, the new LIV Golf Tour) is scrutinized based on actions of its primary funder, a Middle East state? It’s an interesting question for everyone that is considering the role of marketing in supporting reputation in the modern digital age. The Situation LIV Golf is a professional golf tour financed by the “Public Investment Fund,” an umbrella name for…
Reconnecting Mary’s Pizza Shack to cravings everywhere.
Even 63-year-old Bay Area institutions need to refresh every once in a while. From new logo, brand identity and advertising to a totally revamped website, Rule of 3 has rekindled the “spirit of Mary” for Mary’s Pizza Shack—putting a contemporary “retro fresh” attitude on the menu. Get a taste of the work we did here. A vintage photo of Mary’s from the sixties inspired the revitalized swagger we recaptured for this fun-loving brand, complete with a Mary icon that harkens to the era of Burger Kings and Colonels ruled restaurant advertising. The glasses and the slight grin combined for the…
Buyer Beware: Marketing’s Role in Crypto
It was only a few months back that we published a blog ‘coining’ Coinbase’s “QR Code” ad as the most effective commercial of the Super Bowl. Today, Coinbase and Crypto.com are facing a unique marketing challenge–much as tech companies have in past bubble bursts. If you haven’t heard, only three short months after the abundance of cryptocurrency ads that had the Super Bowl regarded as the “Crypto Bowl”, Bitcoin plunged to its lowest value since 2020. Coinbase and Crypto.com have been widely celebrated for their approaches to marketing cryptocurrency and their platforms. Crypto.com’s branding has been heavily dependent on celebrity…
Impact is impacting everything.
Have you noticed it? Impact is becoming part of the business DNA instead of being an afterthought. Companies are finding new ways to act as contributors instead of merely capitalists. And then there are nonprofits that were impact before impact was cool. For all of these situations, the pursuit of impact action is impacting marketing. At RO3, we’re excited to partner in these efforts. We’ve supported both for-profits and nonprofits in purpose-driven efforts—in the ESG/impact investing space, in the creation of affordable housing, and in healthcare, where one of our new clients is addressing nursing shortages. The purest impact endeavor…
First TV foray for Parametric
Thirty years is a long time in the life of a company to go without any serious advertising effort. No digital banners. No TV spots. No outdoor boards. Sure, there was a toe dipped into email marketing and the occasional direct mail tchotchke. But beyond that, Parametric had grown its business in the wealth management space organically since its founding in the 1990s. The beginning of Parametric and Rule of 3’s relationship was bittersweet: the start of 2020 and the pandemic. Even with this new obstacle ahead, the time had come to define Parametric’s leadership role in a “new” investment…